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Monday, 2 December 2013

COCA-COLA ABANDONS SWAZI WORKERS

Coca-Cola has denied that it intends to take any lead in
protecting the rights of workers in Swaziland from land-grabbing.

This follows global
reports that the international drinks company had promised to stop all
business dealings with subsidiaries that were involved in land grabs, where
land is taken from poor people in developing countries without their consent.

Coca-Cola, under its Swazi subsidiary Conco, produces drinks
concentrate using sugar. It makes up as much as 40 percent
of the Swaziland’s gross domestic product (GDP), but it is said to be
exempt from paying full taxes.

In Swaziland, King Mswati III, who rules as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, controls all publically-owned land, and his
chiefs do his bidding in ejecting people from the land they live on and
cultivate if they disobey him or them in any way.

Manqoba Khumalo, General Manager of Conco Limited
(trading as Coca-Cola Swaziland), told the Sunday Observer, a newspaper in
Swaziland in effect owned by King Mswati, that Coca-Cola was taking a
leadership role across the world in protecting land rights of farmers and
communities, but this did not apply to Swaziland.

Khumalo told the newspaper that Coca-Cola was targeting
‘top’ markets and Swaziland has not been taken into consideration. ‘Our plan to
address the land rights issue starts with the assessment of our top markets and
outlines concrete actions in support of sustainable agricultural practices
around the world.’

Khumalo also denied that Coca-Cola influenced King Mswati
and the way he ruled his kingdom.

Asked by the Observer,
‘Does royalty benefit in any way from Coca-Cola’s operations in Swaziland?’ he responded,
‘No’.

He added, ‘Coca-Cola has not provided any personal gifts
to either the King or his family beyond customary gifts presented at local
ceremonies.’

Coca-Cola’s role in Swaziland has been under
scrutiny for many years. Swaziland has been indebted to Coca-Cola ever
since it allowed the company to use it in its fight against workers’ interests
in other countries. In 2009, Coca-Cola closed its concentrate supply plant in
Nigeria, citing an ‘unfriendly manufacturing environment’ in that country.

Coca-Cola also has an impact on the international
standing of Swaziland’s economy. The money
generated by Coca-Cola is what largely accounts for the kingdom being
classified as a ‘lower-middle income developing country’ (and therefore not
eligible for certain types of international aid), even though seven in ten of
Swaziland’s one-million population live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2
a day.

Kenworthy visited one of the sugar cane fields in Eastern
Swaziland, which produces sugar for Coca-Cola.

He wrote, ‘The area that I visited, Vuvulane, is managed
by the Vuvulane Irrigated Farms (VIF) but the sugar cane fields are under the
auspices of the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise and the
Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation who lease them to individual farmers, who in
turn employ casual labourers.

‘In a small village in Vuvulane, most of the adults
worked in the sugar fields as casual labourers for between 400 and 550 Rand (US$40-55)
per month. “This is not enough to pay for medicine, proper food or school fees
for our children,” one villager told me. “Sometimes we do not eat for days. We
used to have our own vegetable gardens but these were confiscated by the sugar
company. We sometimes fish in the nearby dam in the evening, when it is dark.
If we are caught we will be arrested as the dam is owned by the sugar cane
company,” another villager said.

‘Practically none of the children in the village, who
were clad in dirty and ripped clothes and looked underfed, attended school and
many of the villagers, receive food aid. In addition to this, the water supply
is controlled by a privately owned company that readily closes the water supply
form the village if they are not paid on time.’